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A Hunger Artist
"A Hunger Artist" (German: "Ein Hungerkünstler"; also translated into English as "A Fasting Artist" and "A Starvation Artist") is a short story by the German-speaking Czech author Franz Kafka. It was first published in the October 1922 edition of the German literary magazine Die neue Rundschau. It also appears as the title story of an anthology, the last book which Kafka prepared for publication in his lifetime, which was published in 1924, after the author's death. The first English translation of the story was published in 1938. The title character and protagonist of the story is a man who earns a living by publicly fasting for forty days at a time. He becomes famous and earns some degree of admiration from the public. However, he feels that he does not deserve that admiration because he finds it easy to go without food. He also hates having to stop fasting after forty days because he is certain that he can continue without eating for much longer. When the hunger artist's act suddenly goes out of fashion and he falls into obscurity, he discovers that he can go without food for more than forty days but his achievement goes completely unnoticed. Plot The story concerns a professional hunger artist, a kind of performer which genuinely existed from the 18th to the early 20th century. Accompanied by a theatrical impresario, who acts as his manager, the hunger artist travels around Europe, stopping in various cities, towns and villages. Wherever he stops, the hunger artist puts on a public show by going without food for forty days. The fast stops after forty days for health reasons and also because the impresario knows that the public will lose interest after that time. Throughout the forty day period, the hunger artist lives in a cage which contains nothing but straw and a clock. At times, he speaks to the public and allows them to touch him. At others, he pays no attention to the crowds who gather to see him. In spite of his skeletal appearance, many people wrongly believe the hunger artist to be a fake who is secretly given food at night. For that reason, volunteers watch him at night. However, many of those volunteers deliberately stop watching the hunger artist to play cards, in the incorrect belief that he will be given food while they are engrossed in their game. The hunger artist hates those kinds of volunteers and much prefers those who take their task seriously and constantly shine flashlights on him. The end of the hunger artist's forty day fast is always marked in the same way. A military band plays while two local young women come to lead him out of his cage. However, the women are never able to simply lead the hunger artist out because he never wants to end his fast after forty days and wants to stay in his cage. The impresario always has to carry him out. A hospital meal is provided, which the impresario has to force the hunger artist to eat. The impresario always claims that the hunger artist has whispered to him that a toast be proposed to the local people. The hunger artist gets extremely angry if anyone takes pity on him. The impresario always explains that the artist's anger is a result of his hunger. He always explains to the crowd that the hunger artist believes he can fast for longer than forty days. The impresario, however, does not believe this and shows the crowd photographs, which they can buy, showing the nearly dead hunger artist in bed at the end of one of his fasts. When the hunger artist's act suddenly goes out of fashion, he parts company with the impresario and joins a large circus. His cage is placed next to those of the animals which the audience can go to see during the show's interval. Signs are placed around the hunger artist's cage which advertise who he is. A sign on a table in front of the cage states the number of days that the hunger artist has been fasting. Some people deliberately pause to look at the hunger artist. Many more just want to rush on to see the animals. The circus staff soon stop updating the sign which states the number of days which the hunger artist has been fasting. He continues to go without food for much longer than forty days, although this achievement goes completely without notice. Even the hunger artist himself is unaware of how long his fast lasts, having lost count of the days. Nevertheless, many of those who pause in front of the hunger artist's cage and see the outdated sign stating the number of days he has been fasting continue to think he is a fake. The signs around the hunger artist's cage become tattered and disappear but are not replaced. When someone asks why a cage is lying empty, the circus staff investigate. The hunger artist is found beneath the rotten straw. Before he dies, the hunger artist confesses that he never felt comfortable about people admiring his ability to go without food. He found fasting easy simply because he never found any food which he liked. After his death, the hunger artist's cage is occupied by a panther, which is much more popular with visitors to the circus than the hunger artist ever was. See also *Sound files of public domain audiobooks of "A Hunger Artist": **German **English External links *Text of Franz Kafka's "Ein Hungerkünstler" in the original German on Wikisource. *English translation of "A Hunger Artist" by Ian Johnston. *"A Hunger Artist" on the SparkNotes website. Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic